I started off reading this book with a little trepidation. Three topics I avoid when choosing a new book to read:
1. Parents dealing with bratty kids
2. Couples and their marriage problems
3. Sappy romance
Lucy Harper is a moderately successful writer. She knows her genre and she knows to give her faithful readers what they want. When she decides to change course and kill off her main character, marriage problems between Lucy and her wanna be writer/assistant husband flare up. Is he cheating on her? Is he spending large amounts of her/their money? I really did not want a story of a husband manipulating his wife to get what he wants and thank goodness that wasn't the focus of this book! That got dealt with to my delight and the story moved on to more interesting twists.
Did Lucy base her books on experiences with her missing brother from many years ago? Does she know more than she is willing to admit about his disappearance? There are flashbacks to that fateful night and you never quite believe Lucy is on the up and up and what about her imaginary friend Eliza?
I never figured out beforehand who the bad guys were which is a plus for your reading enjoyment. Some reviewers seem to have issues with loose ends not being resolved at the end of the book. I can't say I had an issue with that. I like a book that leaves you invested in a character and not wanting their story to end. Fascinating read!
Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow Books for an early ebook in exchange for a honest review.

Thanks to William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Lucy, a famous writer finds herself under suspicion when her husband is missing. And it isn't the first time someone she has loved has gone missing...

I really struggled with this one. This is my first Gilly Macmillan and I've only heard rave reviews, so I was disappointed. My biggest issue with this was the imaginary friend (Eliza) who Lucy has based her character off of. I sometimes got confused, especially with the flashbacks to when her little brother was missing if it was Lucy or Eliza talking. Also, Lucy was just totally unlikable, though I did feel bad for her with her husband just unilaterally deciding to buy the house....

I usually like slow burn thrillers, but this one just seemed to fizzle for me.

This was an entertaining, fast thriller. Lucy Harper is a crime mystery writer and her main character, Eliza, is an invisible friend/voice that she has been talking to since she was a kid. The book alternates between Lucy as a child when she took her little brother out of the house at night and he disappeared and her as an adult navigating her husband and neighbors after a recent move back to the same neighborhood she grew up in. The sense of tension is good throughout and you're not sure whether Lucy's husband is just a bit of a jerk or if he's intentionally trying to bring harm to Lucy. The ending seemed like it came a bit out of nowhere and it's probably not going to go down in history as the best book ever but I enjoyed it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Lucy Harper is a famous author who writes a series of books with detective, Eliza Grey as the main character. Her jealous husband, Dan (also her manager) seems to do nothing but drive an expensive car, and "manage" her money. And by "manage" I mean spend it all. Dan goes behind her back and buys this grand mansion in Lucy's old hometown. This may seem like a nice gesture......WRONG. Decades earlier, Lucy's little brother Teddy went missing in the woods by her childhood home. He was never found and Lucy is forever haunted by it. When Dan vanishes, she tries to finally find out what happened to Teddy all of those years ago. She does this all while her new neighbors are judging her and the police are breathing down her neck. What will she discover? Lucy has problems of her own though. Eliza is in her head more than she would like her to be. I enjoyed the story and it was definitely a quick read. The short chapters kept me wanting more and more. However, endings are a huge part of books for me and the ending fell flat for me. I wasn't thrilled with the way it was wrapped up and found there to be a few loose ends I wanted answers for.
Thank you @netgalley, @harpercollins and @williammorrowpaperbacks for this ARC!
Review has been added to Goodreads and will be added to Amazon and Barnes and Noble at the publishing date. Thank you!

Lucy Harper is skilled story teller. As a best selling author, Lucy spends most of her time writing and only a little time living her life. She lives through her protagonist, Detective Eliza Grey.
Fiction becomes reality when Lucys husband, Dan, goes missing. Now she is the focus of a real life investigation and needs to channel her inner Eliza to find out who is behind Dan's disappearance. But to do that she needs to look into her past, where her secrets have been buried for years.

Gilly Macmillian has become one of my go to writers. I know when I read any book by her I won't be disappointed. I found myself reading til deep into the night until my eyes started to get tired and I was forced to go to bed. I really should have finished the book in the one sitting, because I went to bed anxious and unsettled.
Through the book I felt Macmillian was letting us into her own personal struggles with writing a bestseller, and how it effects the people around her. Her protagonist, Lucy, is clearly work consumed and a little mentally unstable. They say most great artists are crazy, and I believe that this is true for writers. How else do they come up with these horrific scenarios that they put on paper? So I wonder if Macmillian is feeling a kindred connection to Lucy, like Lucy has to Eliza? Is her personal crazy the base for Lucys crazy? If it is, its working for her and she needs to keep going with it.

The story was fast paced and full of suspenseful moments. It has the best elements of a mystery , the investigations of a crime thriller and the just enough darkness in the plot twist to make it a psychological thriller.

Each character has a significant role that plays out well for the unexpected ending. This is another one of those books where you instantly predict the ending and are thrilled when you realize you were wrong.

After loving The Nanny I had high hopes for this one and it didn't disappoint!
Lucy Harper was just nine when she took her three year old brother Teddy out into the woods to watch a solstice celebration but Lucy was the only one to come home. Well maybe not the only one, there's also her imaginary friend Eliza. After a lengthy investigation the detectives didn't trust Lucy's recollection of what happened due to her colorful imagination but the case remained unsolved and Teddy was never found.
Now, years later with a new name Lucy is a very successful author whose books feature her longtime imaginary friend Eliza. When her husband Dan buys a house without her knowledge but with her money, Lucy becomes a bit unhinged because the house is next to the same woods her brother went missing in. When Dan goes missing, Lucy becomes the prime suspect.
With unlikeable characters (her neighbors) and a very unreliable narrator (Lucy) the story twists and turns itself into a very compelling thriller I couldn't put down. Very well written and tightly plotted, I found myself guessing as to how the past and present story lines would converge to reveal the answers to the mystery. Although I thoroughly enjoyed this book the ending wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped it would be but that might just be me.
That said, I still highly recommend this one to my mystery/thriller loving friends and you know who you are.
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I am sorry to say that I did not finish To Tell You the Truth! I read about 30% of the book and did not feel invested in the characters, The plot seemed vague with a lot of unnecessary descriptions of the scenery, The characters did not seem likable and I just could not get into the story,

I started this book and couldn’t put it down. I kept looking for clues so that I could solve the mystery, but every time I thought I’d figured it out, there was an unexpected twist. There were a few unanswered questions at the end, but I really enjoyed the book.

I really loved this one... but man, that ending. I feel like the author set this book up really well, but when it came to naming the suspect, it seems like she just pulled one out of thin air.
Also, I neeeeeed to know what happened to the brother. All in all though, I really enjoyed this one.

Although I never truly figured out the heroine, Lucy Harper, this book intrigued me. Lucy's little brother disappears one night after sneaking into the woods with his older sister... never to be seen again. Lucy has run from her past, but taken her childhood imaginary friend with her and using her as the main character in a wildly successful detective series. Not only does she write about her, but she talks to her and imagines her as a real individual. Then, her jealous, manipulative, failed writer husband disappears after purchasing a multi million dollar home on the other side of the woods where her brother disappeared without her permission or her name on the deed.

The entire time I was reading this novel, I couldn't decide whether Lucy was overly imaginative or suffering from dissociative identity disorder. While some mystery is solved, another is left with no answers. Is this a reflection of reality, where sometimes we don't find the answers we're looking for, or is it an open door waiting for Lucy's story to continue in a further novel. I guess only time will tell.

This one was just okay for me. I found it a bit confusing and didn't care for the unanswered questions at the end.

I am just not sure I liked the set-up - bouncing back and forth between the night in the woods and present day with her imaginary friend Eliza butting in throughout. Also, Dan was pretty awful - dump his butt!

I really enjoy this author, hopefully her next one is a hit for me.

Book Review: To Tell You the Truth by Gilly MacMillan
4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pub Date:Sept 22nd

Hmmm while this book did keep me in suspense reading on trying to figure out if our main character is crazy or if her suspicions are real, it wasn't what I expected that's for sure. It does leave more to the imagination though & leaves huge questions unanswered. I would definitely recommend this book to my fellow thriller fans . Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow Publishing for my honest review

I enjoyed this fun thriller. To Tell you the Truth is the story of Lucy. Lucy had a brother who went missing many many years ago and a mystery that has never been solved. I loved this unpredictable narrator and the fun interactions between Eliza and Lucy. A great read for anyone looking for a fun mystery with a twisty tale. Thank you to Harpers Collins and NetGalley for this great read. All opinions are my own.

To Tell You The Truth, by Gilly Macmillan.
This is the first book I have read by the author. The title says quite a lot about this book. Lucy Harper is a best selling author that has a lot on her plate. She is finishing a book, she is trying to please a husband that she supports, and she is holding onto to her sanity as hard as she can. The story takes many twists and turns as the past and present unfold together. It keeps you guessing until the end.

To Tell You the Truth is a fitting title for Gilly Macmillan's latest endeavor, because the truth can be very hard to discern as you will find out when you read this well done suspense novel.

Lucy Harper is a best-selling mystery author with plenty of fame, money and fans who are always eager to read more about the crimes solved by her main character Detective Eliza Grey (named Eliza after her imaginary childhood friend). But life for Lucy isn't as rosy as it seems; it never has been.

When she was nine, Lucy snuck out of the house to watch people celebrate the summer solstice in the woods near her home, taking her three-year-old brother Teddy, who refused to be left behind, with her. She returned alone. Despite repeated questioning by the police, Lucy continued to say that she doesn't know what happened to Teddy. Though everyone believes Lucy knows more than she is telling, the case has never been solved. She moved and changed her name in hopes of putting all that behind her. After she marries Dan, giving her another name change, she feels sure that no one will connect her to her painful past.

Dan, a writer himself, whose work has been continually rejected for years, is more than a little jealous when Lucy signs with a publishing house within a year after starting to write. Now he serves as her personal and administrative assistant, clearing the way so that she can focus on writing. Readers won't be surprised to know that Dan has an agenda of his own, and frequently gas-lights his wife. When he disappears, Lucy becomes the prime suspect. She is once again caught like a deer in the spotlight as her past and present lives are tossed together like laundry. Lucy, skilled at telling stories, finds herself at a loss for words, and losing control. She reaches the point where she isn't sure what is real. Dan has played mind-games with her before, is this another one? What has he been working on and why? Is Lucy really responsible for the disappearances of the significant people in her life? What IS the truth??

Readers will love the unstable narrative of Lucy, and the plethora of twists and turns that Macmillan has in store. I thoroughly enjoyed the story within a story, and it is handled very well. This is a quite satisfying read. Like Lucy's fans, I'm already eagerly awaiting Gilly Macmillan's next book!!

My thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Lucy Harper is a writer who can spin quite the story, And this spills over into her real-life; her brother Teddy disappeared years ago, and now her husband has too.

This is a twisty suspense novel in true Gilly MacMillan style. I loved it.

From all outward appearances, Lucy Harper is a successful crime fiction author happily married to her husband Dan and adored by the legion of fans devoted to her Eliza Grey series. Nothing could be further from the truth. Lucy is damaged and fragile--haunted by the traumatic disappearance of her younger brother when they were children, and now subject to her husbands's cruelty and gaslighting. When Dan goes missing shortly after the couple moves into a house bordering the woods where her brother Teddy was last seen alive, Lucy's grip on reality begins to unravel. Once again she is the prime suspect in a high-profile investigation. The police want to know if Lucy played a hand in Dan's disappearance, while questions about Teddy's disappearance reemerge.

What does Lucy know about these cases? What is the truth--how much of it is she willing to reveal--and to what consequences? In To Tell You the Truth, Gilly Macmillan has written yet another masterful tale of domestic suspense with mysterious and sinister undertones that draw readers into a powerful web of secrets and betrayals delivered by an unreliable narrator.

To Tell You the Truth is a twisty thriller that keeps you guessing until the very end. This book is really fast paced and hard to put down. The lines of reality and fiction are blurred continuously throughout the novel.

Lucy Harper is a famous crime author whose husband suddenly goes missing when they move into a new house. She becomes the main suspect when it comes to light that her 3 year old brother also went missing when she was 9 years old, never to be found again. Lucy starts questioning her memories surrounding both missing persons.

I have never read any books by this author personally, so I was unsure of what to expect. I love thrillers and this one did not disappoint! I usually am pretty good at figuring out the ending to thrillers, but I was not expecting this ending. Lucy is such an unreliable character and that is doubled because of her relationship with Eliza, her imaginary “friend”. Is she just Lucy’s internal voice or something more sinister? If you enjoy thrillers, I highly recommend picking this book up. ARC provided by Publisher via Netgalley.

Lucy writes bestselling novels featuring Detective Sargent Eliza Grey, who just happens to be Lucy's lifelong imaginary friend. Lucy's husband Dan, who also wants to be a writer but has settled for being Lucy's assistant, has disappeared. And he's not the first person to vanish from Lucy's life. As we weave our way through both of these unfolding stories, we have to ask ourselves, just as Lucy does, "what is fact and what is fiction?" and "who can you trust?"

Thank you to Gilly Macmillan, NetGalley, and Book Club Girl Early Read program/Harper Collins/William Morrow for the early copy of this one. Schedule to release on 9.22.2020

A creepy and chilling story, To Tell You The Truth will leave you unsettled... a perfect Fall read! There were so many great elements to this story - a gaslighting husband, a spooky house, questionable neighbors, disappearances, and a voice that only Lucy can hear. I found myself incredibly frustrated with Lucy's husband Dan, what a master manipulator! I was actually happy he disappeared. I really liked Gilly's writing, the switching between now and then was unique and refreshing. But when we found out what the "then" chapters were really about... it blew my mind!